Only on the eve of a super blue blood moon could the president of the United States deliver the state of union address he did on Tuesday.

A super blue blood moon — with its fleeting circumference of eerie, molten light — is otherworldly. So was this speech.

Then again, creating an alternate universe is as natural as a the phases of the moon for Donald Trump. His presidency lives in another dimension, immune to norms and narratives. Why, then, should his first state of the union address be any different?

By tradition, the speech is a piece of political theatre. On Tuesday, Trump staged his own, assembling visitors as props, presenting a leather-bound catalogue of omission, complaint, conceit, falsehood and fantasy.

What a difference a year makes. Why, last January, America was all “carnage” and “swamp,” a byword for crime, poverty and corruption.

Now “the union is strong.” Now “optimism is sweeping across our land.” Yes, these are the statutory claims of all presidents when they address Congress. Sometimes they’re true; sometimes not.

But the greening of Trump’s America has been blinding. The economy is creating record jobs, the stock market is creating untold wealth, the tax cuts are unleashing energy and capital. Wages are rising, companies are investing, jobs are returning from abroad.

Most of this is exaggerated. The rate of job creation (2.4 million jobs) since his election is less than several of the years under Barack Obama. The stock market has reached new heights, though two-day losses this week are the worst since September 2016. The tax cuts, as a share of the economy, are not “the biggest in American history.”

Trump thinks himself the author of prosperity. He inherited a strong economy, as he did a bull market, yet takes credit for both. When the markets fall or growth falters, watch Trump blame someone else.

He is fabulist-in-chief. “We have ended the war on American energy,” he announces, suggesting a new return to “beautiful, clean coal,” as if this were Dickensian England. But coal consumption at home is the lowest in 40 years, as solar energy surges.

Abroad, he claims ISIL is in retreat, a campaign he claims began not with Obama, but with his administration. He thinks North Korea cowers before his steely resolve. Trump blusters amid reports he’s withdrawn his nominee for ambassador to South Korea because the nominee opposed a pre-emptive strike on North Korea that Trump is said to be considering. It’s lunacy.

Meanwhile, Melania Trump, looking subdued and drawn, is said to be so angry at her husband’s alleged affair with a porn star that she refused to ride with him to Capitol Hill, her own “me too” moment.

Mike Pence and Paul Ryan nodded in adoration behind the president, their expressions a tableau of pleasure. Genuflecting Republicans, chanting “USA! USA!”, were unfazed by the prospect of a Democratic wave in November.

Trump spoke as if his presidency were not in peril. It is. A special counsel investigates his campaign ties to Russia. A credible case of obstruction of justice against him grows. His popularity plumbs unprecedented depths. Congress is dysfunctional. To Trump, though, it’s morning in America.

In his windy address and lumbering delivery, Trump applauded the “American heroes” in the gallery.

Time after time, he clapped for himself.

After a year in office, the president proclaims “our new American moment” has arrived.

Blame the super blood moon and expect the moment to last about as long.